Huzza! How the ‘British cheer’ proved a valuable psychological weapon against Napoleon and his armies
GENERATIONS of military historians have overlooked the importance of the “British cheer” in the victory against the French during the Napoleonic wars, according to a new book.
Author Paul Thompson’s evidence suggests that the Army’s cheer was a valuable psychological weapon for Britain when fighting her continental foe.
Soldiers yelled in unison a variety of words during battle including “hurrah” and “huzza”, as well as many similar terms such as “hooray”, “hussaw” and “huzzay”.
In his book, The British Cheer, Psychological Warfare in the Napoleonic Era, Thompson cites many accounts of soldiers referencing the cheer and what its effect was.
He said: “It is something that many military historians haven’t considered and others mention it in passing then move on to other things. It’s been overlooked. Reading through accounts it surprised me just how often the cheer was mentioned and I concluded that there must be more to it. In terms of decibels it had a similar level as the artillery and men described it as ‘thundering’, ‘exhilarating’ and ‘thrilling’.
“French accounts acknowledge its potency and while they had their own cheer it didn’t have the same impact and couldn’t cancel out the British one.
Napoleon certainly knew about the importance of psychological warfare but he did not hear the ‘British cheer’ until his defeat at Waterloo in 1815.
“He once said that ‘the moral is to the physical as three is to one’ – meaning the psychological element was three times more important than physical one.”
Examples in the book, published by Penn & Sword, include one from Gen Francis Seymour Larpent, a judge advocate, which refers to action at River Côa in 1810: “…the whole division set up a loud shout, so as to frighten a small party of French who did not know what was the matter, and ran away.”
Aeneas Anderson, of the 40th Foot, serving in Minorca in June 1800, wrote: “This firing was repeated twice, and followed by three cheers, whose loyal and animating sound, proceeding from the tongues and hearts of so large a body of British troops, produced an effect which my feeble powers are unable to describe.”
During the Waterloo campaign Maj Edward Macready wrote: “Halkett, as well as the noise permitted us to hear him, addressed us, and said, ‘My boys, you have done everything I could have wished and more than I could expect but much remains to be done – at this moment we have nothing for it but a charge.’ Our brave fellows replied with three cheers. The enemy halted, carried arms, about forty paces from us and fired a volley. We returned it, and giving our ‘Huzza!’ brought down the bayonets. Our surprise was inexpressible when, pushing through the clearing smoke, we saw the backs of the Imperial Grenadiers.”
Veteran William Surtees in 1813, wrote: “[The French] now began to get courage...but my commanding officer calling out to cheer our people, which had the effect of intimidating them and they did not dare to advance.”
‘The whole division set up a loud shout so as to frighten a small party of French who ran away’